


Screaming in the Dark

by whimsical_ramblings



Series: Language Barrier [4]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Language Barrier, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-12 11:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4478513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsical_ramblings/pseuds/whimsical_ramblings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vegeta dreams of the day that Planet Vegeta burned. Bulma helps him reconcile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Screaming in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by tumblr user prince-minz's lovely artwork, which I encourage all of you to check out.

The world was on fire.

He could hear the screams rising above the din of flames and smoke, a crescendo of fear and agony that Vegeta was all too familiar with. He'd been the cause of such misery more times than he could count, but this was one planet he wasn’t responsible for destroying. It was too familiar. The vast deserts, the red sands, the blood-orange sky. His memories of this place were hazy at best, but he knew it, had dreamed of it countless times since he was a child. This was Planet Vegeta. He was watching Planet Vegeta burn.

Buildings crumbled into dust around him, women and children turned to ash where they stood, fire rained from the sky and incinerated everything in its path. Vegeta could feel the heat of the flames, the smoke burning his lungs, the cries for help ringing in his ears. He dropped to his knees, eyes clenching shut, willing the images to disappear, and when he opened them, Planet Vegeta was gone. Instead, he found himself on earth, his eyes going wide as he watched the trees burn and the lakes boil. Someone screamed his name and he turned his head to find Bulma on her knees several feet away, Trunks clinging to her side. She called out to him again, but when he ran to her, lines of red snaked their way up her arms, crawled over Trunks' face, cracking their skin like dried mud under the sun, and before he could open his mouth to call out to them, they disappeared in a flash of light, burning up in an instant.

Vegeta stared at the place they'd been in disbelief. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. He tried to scream but found he had no mouth to do so, and when he looked down at his own arms, he saw the same red lines climbing like vines up his skin. Vegeta clawed at them, ripped at his flesh with blunt nails, tried to dig out the fire that was churning inside of him, but his efforts were useless. His skin cracked open, a light engulfed him, and the earth exploded.

***

Bulma woke to find Vegeta thrashing on the bed next to her, caught in the throes of what she assumed to be a nightmare, and she curled up closer to him the way she often did when his sleep grew restless. She brought her head to rest against his shoulder, but he immediately shrugged her off, tossing and turning and raking his nails down his forearms as though he were trying to tear his skin off the bone. Even in the dark she could see the blood that was running down his arms, his wrists, soaking into the bedsheets.

"Vegeta!” she cried, sitting up abruptly. "Vegeta stop, you're hurting yourself!"

She grabbed onto his wrists, and Vegeta's eyes shot open, staring up at her in confusion. He pulled his hands out of her grip and studied his bloodstained fingers, breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" Bulma asked. Her words only seemed to confuse him more. He mumbled something in Saiyin, bringing a shaking hand to her face. When he spoke again he sounded more urgent than before, almost frightened.

_He can't understand me_ , Bulma realized. Years ago, it wasn't entirely uncommon for him to have problems understanding her when he'd just woken up, especially from a nightmare, but that'd been when he was still learning her language. Vegeta was practically fluent now.

She grabbed his hand and held it tightly, hoping it might comfort him.

“Everything’s okay,” she said. “Do you know know where you are? Who I am?”

Vegeta stared at her a moment longer, and recognition seemed to wash over him.

“Bulma,” he said, visibly relaxing.

“That’s right,” she said. “It was just a dream.”

She pulled herself off the bed and urged him to follow her.

“Come on, we should get you cleaned up,” she said.

“I don’t-”

  
“Don’t what?” Bulma asked.

Vegeta hesitated.

“Nothing,” he said, and he followed her into the bathroom.

Bulma pulled some supplies out of the medicine cabinet while Vegeta leaned against the sink, his gaze locked on the nightshirt she was wearing. He tugged at the fabric lightly with his free hand while Bulma disinfected his arm.

“What?” she asked, then looked down at her shirt. It was stained with blood, she noticed, and she shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. You know I’ve got a million more.”

  
Vegeta just grunted, as though she’d missed some point, but wasn’t willing to speak on it any further. Bulma let it slide, and wrapped his injured arms with bandages, securing them in place when she was finished.

“Done!” she said. “Are you alright to go back to bed?”

Vegeta nodded, although he didn’t look up at her, and Bulma decided to take the lead and head back to the bedroom. Before she could cross the threshold, however, a hand grabbed her wrist, and she looked down to find Vegeta’s bandaged fingers clinging to her.

“What is it?” she asked. Vegeta didn’t answer, and Bulma wasn’t sure if his refusal to vocalize his thoughts was because he didn’t want to, or if it was because he couldn’t. He pulled her close to him instead, resting his forehead against her shoulder, wrapping his arms around her waist, and Bulma started to realize that, whatever it was Vegeta had dreamed about, it had more than likely involved her.

“I love you,” she said, not expecting an answer but feeling as though it needed to be said regardless. “You know that, right?”

Vegeta just held her closer, and that was enough for her.


End file.
